1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for predicting the print colors of a print produced by a printing press.
2. Description of the Related Art
Prints are produced by generating original film plates in various colors including cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K), for example, producing PS plates (presensitized plates) from the original film plates by exposure and development, mounting the PS plates on a printing press such as a rotary press or the like, and adjusting printing conditions, including printing pressure, dampening water, temperature, etc.
Therefore, complex steps are involved in producing prints. In order to produce a print in desired colors, it has been customary, prior to the production of the print, to generate a proof sheet using a simple output device such as a color printer or the like, to confirm the generated proof sheet, and to adjust the printing conditions.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-128760, for example, discloses a method of generating color charts respectively with a printing press and a color printer, or the like, colorimetrically measuring the color charts, determining an ICC (International Color Consortium) profile representing an associative relationship between the halftone dot percentage (%) of inks in the colors C, M, Y, K and the calorimetric values, and generating a proof sheet for prints using the ICC profile. The density of a solid image, i.e., an image with a 100% halftone dot percentage, is usually defined as a standard density by a user, which may be a printing company or the like. The printing conditions, representing the film thickness of inks on printing presses, are adjusted to achieve the standard density.
The standard density of prints may differ from user to user. If the standard density is to be changed, then it is necessary to reprint the color charts and to produce an ICC profile once again. However, such a process is time-consuming because the color charts, each of which is made up of a number of color patches, need to be printed and calorimetrically measured for the new standard density.